by Ty Tagami | Oct 16, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — State lawmakers wrapped up another marathon hearing on Georgia’s election procedures Thursday, ahead of possible legislative changes next year.
The House election procedures committee took four hours to hear presentations in Americus from nearly a dozen advocates, experts and officials and to listen to brief comments from more than two dozen members of the public.
The themes were like commentary at prior hearings, where people with suspicions about election integrity urged the state to move to hand-marked and hand-counted ballots while others urged lawmakers to avoid making changes to accommodate what they saw as unfounded conspiracy theories.
The hearing featured a clash between the only Democrat on the House panel and Janice Johnston, an appointee on the State Election Board (SEB) who has expressed concerns about the accuracy of election results.
Rep. Saira Draper, D-Atlanta, confronted Johnston for what she saw as inconsistent SEB rulings on election complaints.
Draper noted that board in 2023 had dismissed complaints that Herschel Walker had bought votes when his campaign for U.S. Senate handed out $25 gas cards to potential voters yet had decided recently that Lyft had violated the law by offering discounted rides to voters during elections.
When Draper asked Johnston a hypothetical question — whether she would allow Geoff Duncan, a Democrat running for governor, to hand out gas cards to potential voters — Johnston did not answer. Instead, she said she did not know who he is.
Duncan is Georgia’s former lieutenant governor, a Republican who recently switched parties.
Other presenters asked for more state money to fund local election operations, for more accommodations for voters with disabilities, for multilingual ballots, for full separation of the SEB from the Secretary of State’s office, for more restrictions on absentee voting and for easier ballot access for third parties.
Brian Allen, vice chair of the Libertarian Party of Georgia, said the state requires would-be candidates to obtain signatures from 5% of registered voters to get on the ballot for non-statewide races and 1% for statewide races.
“So, unless something changes, it’s only going to be Democrats and Republicans,” Allen said.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 16, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A voting rights advocate and longtime city commissioner in Coffee County suffered a loss this week in a federal lawsuit she was pursuing against election officials after she was arrested for helping voters during the contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Olivia Coley-Pearson is suing the county election board and former election supervisor Emily Misty Martin.
Coley-Pearson was an elected commissioner for the city of Douglas in Coffee County when a city policeman arrested her at a polling site during early voting in 2020.
Martin had called police on Coley-Pearson, complaining she was causing a disruption while helping voters.
Police issued a criminal trespass warning, but Coley-Pearson returned later that day and was arrested.
Coley-Pearson had a long history of helping illiterate voters cast their ballots. After the criminal case against her was dismissed in 2022, she sued Martin and the Coffee County Board of Elections, alleging violation of her constitutional rights to free speech and against false arrest.
A federal judge in Atlanta ruled against Coley-Pearson in 2023, so she appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled against her Tuesday.
Martin had asked police to keep Coley-Pearson away, but the appeals court reasoned that the responding city police sergeant, not Martin, was responsible for the arrest.
“He saw with his own eyes that Coley-Pearson was violating that trespass warning, which led to her arrest,” the court opinion says. “And he testified, without record evidence showing otherwise, that both the language in the criminal trespass warning and Coley-Pearson’s arrest rested ‘entirely’ with him.”
The Southern Center for Human Rights reported in March that it helped Coley-Pearson with her legal battles, including her successful defense in two criminal cases brought against her for helping voters in 2016.
The organization reported that the city of Douglas, which Coley-Pearson also sued in connection with her 2020 arrest, had settled with her.
Coley-Pearson has since retired from the city commission, and Martin is no longer overseeing elections.
In 2022, the news outlet ProPublica reported that Martin resigned from her election post under pressure in 2021.
The report said Martin, who also used the surnames Hampton and Hayes, had allowed several computer experts into her offices, where they may have had access to election systems — and that they were connected with Trump’s effort to challenge his 2020 loss to Biden.
Misty Hampton was among the 19 co-defendants, including Trump, whom Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged with racketeering in connection with an alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from prosecuting the case due to an appearance of impropriety involving a romantic relationship with a prosecutor she hired for it. The Georgia Supreme Court declined to consider her appeal of that decision in September, effectively removing her from the case.
The Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia must now find a special prosecutor to handle it.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 15, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter has thrown his support behind Jason Esteves in his campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor ahead of next year’s election.
“He’s the new generation of leadership that Georgia needs, and he still has a long record of fighting for our families,” Carter said in a statement released Wednesday by the Esteves campaign.
Carter won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination himself in 2014 only to lose the general election to Republican Nathan Deal. The former state senator and grandson of former president Jimmy Carter said he knows Esteves’ family. He said Esteves, who recently stepped down as a state Senator representing Cobb and Fulton counties and previously served on the Atlanta school board, “has heart and wisdom,” adding, “I love his Columbus roots; he knows that Georgia is more than just Atlanta.”
The endorsement is intended to give Esteves an edge in an increasingly crowded Democratic field that includes political figures with name recognition.
Two of them, former DeKalb County CEO and state labor commissioner Michael Thurmond and former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who recently switched from the Republican party, have won statewide. Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has been touring the state to enhance recognition outside the capital city, recently meeting with farmers in Albany, The Albany Herald reported.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face whoever emerges from the Republican contest, which includes several competitors with statewide name recognition, as well, including Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump; Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; and Attorney General Chris Carr, who touted his endorsement by 53 Georgia sheriffs last month.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 15, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The number of students who earn a degree at a public college or university in Georgia keeps rising.
Enrollment has been rising, too, but that is not the only reason for the increasing graduation rates at the University System of Georgia.
Enrollment has gone up 12.8% since 2011, but the number of degrees awarded has far outpaced that, shooting up 50.6% over the same period, according to the Board of Regents.
The graduation gains coincide with USG’s decision to join the Complete College America program in 2011.
“Our focus on student success delivers real value — not just for the state, but for every student whose degree opens doors to opportunity and long-term prosperity,” Chancellor Sonny Perdue said in a statement Tuesday.
USG cited several initiatives, including the creation of a website (Georgia Degrees Pay) that informs families about college costs and value, with data about success rates, borrowing, debt and average earnings by degree for all 26 of the system’s colleges and universities. The system also pointed to the Georgia Momentum Approach, which uses predictive analytics and targeted advising for students who are transitioning to college. Remediation and teaching practices were also updated.
The gains have produced all-time highs: the number of degrees awarded in Fiscal Year 2025 rose 7.9% over the prior year, for a record 82,607 degrees. Early students lagged their more advanced peers: 53,739 of the degrees awarded in FY 2025 went to undergraduates, for an increase of 4.3%, while graduate and professional degree awards increased 15.2% to 28,868.
Four-year graduation rates were not evenly distributed last year. Of the Freshmen who enrolled in the system in 2020, 35.6% earned a degree within four years, according to a USG graduation report available online. The rate at Georgia Tech was 69.3% and at the University of Georgia it was 77.4%. However, the rate at Fort Valley State University was 15.9% and at Georgia Gwinnett College it was 10.2%.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 14, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — William R. “Bill” Crowe, a longtime college administrator with experience at the University of Georgia and at public colleges in several other states, will take over as the interim president of Valdosta State University in January.
University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue named Crowe as the temporary successor of President Richard Carvajal on Tuesday.
Carvajal leaves the post at the end of the semester before starting a new role as president of California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in late January.
Crowe will begin helping Carvajal with the transition on Oct. 15.
“His experience in advancing student success, guiding complex organizations and building partnerships makes him well-suited to serve as interim president,” Perdue said in a statement about Crowe’s selection.
In prior roles, Crowe has provided strategic direction for the University of Texas at Austin and has led UGA’s Continuing Education Center, where he oversaw the establishment of over 200 online courses, boosting external revenue and enrollments. He also spent a quarter century at Tyler Junior College in Texas as an associate vice president, a dean in multiple roles and a director of campus police.
Crowe taught a graduate course on community college resource development at Ferris State University in Michigan and served as interim chancellor of Louisiana State University Eunice.
“What matters most to me is helping students succeed and making sure faculty and staff have the resources they need to do their best work,” Crowe said in a statement.
